The Meadow Lea jingle of the 1970s has been repurposed as a way to encourage vaccination against COVID-19
The jingle was created by Alan Morris and Allan Johnson who together made up Mojo Advertising. The agency later became part of Publicis Groupe.
Johnston and Morris, wanting to do more than simply spruiking healthly margarine, looked for a word that rhymed with "polyunsaturated" and came up with "congratulated".
Hence the line: You ought to be congratulated.
Congratulations to mums for serving good food via Meadow Lea.
The commercial impact: Meadow Lea doubled its market share and the size of the market for margarine also doubled.
The Mojo partnership came up with a string of enduring jingles, including "Come on Aussie, come on" for Kerry Packer's World Series cricket, Paul Hogan and the "Shrimp on the Barbie" campaign and the Tooheys "How do you feel?".
The latest version of the Meadow Lea jingle comes from Allan Johnson, the Jo in Mojo, via adman Rob Belgiovane who worked at the agency from 1980. Alan Morris died in 2007.
He had first go at the lyrics and then Johnson, who also is the voice of the jingle, made it perfect.
Belgiovane called Johnson: "What about: You're to be vaccinated." He burst out laughing.
Speaking to Russel Howcroft and Ross Stevenson on 3AW, Belgiovane said: "We rang Jo and said why not put a positive spin on what's going on at the moment without wanting to judge people. There's so much bad news out there.
“If we use this song from happier times and put lyrics there to give people hope that there is light at the end of the tunnel, that we can all get back together to living the way we used to live, it might be a good thing to put out there right now in this current news cycle of one bit of bad news after another.
"I think Jo is around 80 ... he will kill me for saying that. He's no spring chicken but I've got to say his voice is still fantastic."
Wouldn't you like to feel free again
Enjoy get togethers with your friends
Cheering on your team
Living the dream
You Oughta be Vaccinated
CREDITS:
Song: BWM Dentsu/Allan Johnston, Rob Belgiovane, Tim Philp and Jamie Mackay. /Sonar Music/Dentsu Media
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